India’s major IT services company Infosys, in which UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s wife owns a minority stake. It is closing operations in Russia and trying to find replacement roles abroad for staff employed in Moscow, BBC reported quoting sources.
Britain’s public service broadcaster BBC late Friday night quoted sources as saying that Infosys was “trying to find replacement roles abroad for staff employed in Moscow”.
Infosys has so far not responded to emails sent by The Indian Express, which sought to know the number of employees it had in Russia and the reasons behind the closure of operations in the country.
The reported shutting down of operations comes about a week after the British media accused Sunak of profiting from the Putin regime as Infosys had ties to local enterprises in Russia. Sunak is married to NR Narayan Murthy’s daughter Akshata Murthy.
The development comes under the backdrop of Sunak facing burning questions over his wife Akshata Murty’s shares in the firm, which was co-founded by her father, NR Narayana Murthy. Earlier as well, Sunak’s spokesperson has said that his wife had no role in Infosys’s operational decisions. Infosys’s most recent annual report lists Akshata Murthy as holding 0.9 per cent of the company’s shares worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Notably, there was no exchange filing available on this development on India’s two big stock exchanges.
Infosys is one of the few IT services companies which continues to operate in Russia while most big global IT and consultancy firms such as SAP, Oracle, PwC, McKinsey, Accenture, and KPMG have all closed their operations post war-like situation in Ukraine.
Infosys Response
A spokesperson for Infosys declined to comment on the decision to close the Moscow office or what its future involvement with companies operating in Russia would be.
Infosys had said last week that it does not have any “active business relationships with local Russian enterprises”. This was to clarify its operations in Moscow as the invasion of Ukraine had led to widespread economic sanctions against Russia.
Infosys had said that it had less than 100 employees in Russia who service some global clients based there.
“A key priority for Infosys in times of adversity is to continue extending support to the community. The company has committed $1 million towards relief efforts for the victims of war in Ukraine,” the company had said.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, several companies from across the world have announced they would either temporarily restrict or stop providing services to Russia and its citizens. On the other hand, countries have imposed economic sanctions and seized assets belonging to Russian companies and their businessmen.
